Principle Investigator Eligibility

Principal investigators on sponsored projects normally hold full-time faculty or staff appointments at the University of Oklahoma. An individual who is employed by the university with a less than full-time appointment may serve as principal investigator on a grant or contract if one of the following conditions is met:

• A full-time university faculty or staff member is named as co-principal investigator, and as the account sponsor for the project agrees to accept responsibility for ensuring that the grant/contract reporting requirements and deliverables are met; or
• The chair/director of the university unit through which the work will be conducted accepts responsibility for ensuring that the grant/contract reporting requirements and deliverables are met at the time the proposal is routed through the university. (In this case, the chair/director does not need to be named as a co-principal investigator or account sponsor for the project.)
• If allowable by the sponsor, graduate students may serve as the principal investigator on the proposal, provided a full-time university faculty member agrees to serve as the co-principal investigator and account sponsor for the project and accepts responsibility for ensuring that the grant/contract reporting requirements and deliverables are met.

Note that this is a University of Oklahoma policy, and any exception to this policy must be approved by the Vice President for Research and Partnerships. If the funding agency has more restrictive requirements regarding who can serve as a principal investigator on proposals, these requirements would supersede this policy.